RSS is not dead
Just the other day, my Twitter feed started to get littered with “RSS is dead” tweets again. I decided that maybe it’s time for my two cents. I wanted to explain why I think RSS is alive and kicking, where it is failing, and how the quality is suffering.
Content Overload
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of why RSS is not dead is content overload. If you have a fairly large number of followers on Twitter, you probably know what I mean. My Twitter feed is filled with all kinds of links. I couldn’t possible keep up with them all. When I am able to keep up with the content coming through Twitter, the same thing gets posted over and over.
Of course there is the search functionality. This is also flawed. All a spammer has to do is include popular keywords in their tweet and your query result is full of irrelevant results that you have to sift through to get to what you were looking for in the first place.
RSS is Convenient
RSS is a super convenient way of getting my information. When I am ready to read the latest news about web design/development, current events, or the latest sports news, I fire up Google Reader and it’s all there waiting on me. If I miss a day or two, that’s okay, it will still be there and I can catch up on what I may have missed. That cannot be done in micro-blogging. Once it’s overwritten with new news and posts, it’s gone, unless you go search for it. But what do you search for if you missed it?
I love the personalization of RSS. I subscribe to what I think is interesting or important, and when it becomes uninteresting and unimportant, I unsubscribe. I do not see how that level of personalization can be accomplished with micro-blogging. As a follower, you are subjected to whatever the person you are following feels is important or interesting. There are people that tweet links and stories that I find incredibly stupid and boring. Do I unfollow them? No. They also post tweets that are funny and witty that I do enjoy. So again I have to sift through what I don’t want.
Where is RSS Failing?
So with all this talk about how awesome RSS is and how it is not going away anytime soon, where does it fail? Real time. Real time search is at the forefront right now. We as internet and data consumers, want our information fast. The important news hits Twitter like a hurricane. As I was writing this the news of a Wordpress security issue hit Twitter, and it spread amazingly fast. This is not something that you want sitting stagnant in your feed reader waiting for you to get around to it. You need this information now. That type of thing is what drives micro-blogging, and I assume leads people to think that RSS is dead, but those are special circumstances.
Quality
Now that everything is moving so fast on the internet, it seems like some bloggers are trying to capture that speed. The unfortunate result is poor quality. I have noticed a surge in blogs that are just aggregate blogs. They compile what they think are the hottest blog posts or topics, slap them in a post and send it out. This usually results in the user clicking through to two, sometimes three different websites to get to the content. It doesn’t take me long to get tired of clicking through to find out that it is someone else’s content.
In addition to aggregate blog posts, there are the overused lists. I can’t tell you how many posts I get that list the “Top 20 Artisitic Photoshop Designs”, or “10 Examples of Great Typography”. Those have all been done. I think some blogs have lost their personality. When I read someone’s blog I want to read about them. What do they think? How did they write that super cool Wordpress plugin? Where do they stand on RSS feeds? Without the personal touch, nobody cares. If all you are posting is list after list and nothing about you, I can miss it. I can let it fly be me in the Twitter wildfire. On the other hand, if you are giving me an inside look at how you built your web app, or designed that cool interface, I do not want to miss that.
